I hear some Nirvana in this song (meaning they were inspired by this song). 

There's no part of this that doesn't work for me - Bassline, drums and lyrics. Saw them in 80 - loved them then,  still love the sound they made.

 cob427uk1 wrote:

Been there, know how you feel. Had Jeff Buckley tickets offered to me but thought it was to much as a Uni student ($40) and hey I'd catch him next time he toured. He died pretty soon after. RIP

 hcaudill wrote:
They are indeed faces, left: Andy Summers, center: Sting (complete with spiky hair), right: Stewart Copeland (he of the long face)

always loved this. 
curious, does someone else take the lead vocals here and not sting? sounds a bit different.

 vandal wrote:


I thought I knew every word in every song... had to look this one up.

Sorry about the gun problems in the USA. I had great memories visiting family in California and back then it was not in the news.  

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an armalite" 

Welcome to every day in the Americas... 

Such a classic tune. Has retro-dystopian vibes 

And they're only going to change this place
By killing everybody in the human race
They would kill me for a cigarette
But I don't even wanna die just yet
There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

Wow... I wasn't aware this tune was a time capsule...

Just been transported back to some lovely times... 

 primm wrote:
How does anyone pick just one? 

Tho it certainly belongs in the top 5, without a doubt.

This band was way ahead of their time and this is their best song.

Love the catchy bass part.  So round.

 whatsupdude wrote:
 
That's why I love it!

Doesn't have that typical Police sound, but who cares!?! A nine.

 danfl75 wrote:
 

cd has come a long way since the early eighties and streamed music is up there these days... I think some of my best listening was done on old gear ... probably younger less brass ears and on OOmPHH for life ... I am still enjoying it though thanks to sites like this .. xxx radio paradise 

 primm wrote:
 
smokin !!

Takes me way back to 1981 & the rest of the 80's. It was a 10 then and a 10 now.

A very good tune from an excellent band: excellent musicians and excellent lyricists, produced as slickly as possible in the 1980s.

I've seen them three times and am sorry that there won't be a fourth.

A 9 becomes a 10.

holy hell....Coldplay Clocks to The Police Invisible Sun.....NICE SEGUE.

 dickmahoon wrote:
 

I started really listening to Stewart Copeland's drumming about 5 years ago because one of the characters in the post-apocalyptic fiction series Newsflesh, by Mira Grant, waxes lyrical about how good he is. She is right, he's excellent, and his sound is as much a part of what made a great Police song as anything Sting ever contributed. This track is still brilliant after all these years.

As an aside, I strongly recommend Newsflesh for a slightly different take on the zombie theme for anyone into that sort of thing.

 danfl75 wrote:
 

I agree on the original versions sound quality.  The vinyl sounds really good.  Can't believe it's been 38 years.  It seems to me most analog recordings put on CD sound dead.  Unless RP plays them here.  Dunno how they do it, but RP's sound quality is beyond amazing.  Thanks so much. -John

One of those tunes that FM radio overplayed assassinated for the rest of my time. 

An invisible sun is like the republican health plan.

Worked in a record store in the late 70's early 80's. Label rep came in one day and said a new band was playing a very small warm up gig in Exeter and did I want tickets. I declined and it turned out it was The Police. regretted it to this day.

 capandjudy wrote:
 
This CD used to sound off and a little dead, but as my system has progressed, I realize that it is well mixed and mastered. Funny how these things change with the system, it reflects more than EQ changes. It's gradually coming alive. Funny how these things change with the system, it reflects more than EQ changes. Maybe it's slightly below optimal peak values and that led to a less than exciting mp3. Great band and song, worthy of a 10! Thanks for all the great comments and music.

 Stephen_Phillips wrote:
 
Brian May (as Bill G has commented :probably the only rock song about Einstein's theory of relativity) wrote a song along similar lines...

"'39" is a song by British rock band Queen. Composed by lead guitarist Brian May, it is the fifth track on their fourth studio album A Night at the Opera. The song was also the B-side to "You're My Best Friend".


The song relates the tale of a group of space explorers who
embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon
their return, however, they realise that a hundred years have passed,
because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged. (Wikipedia)

 ojibwe wrote: 
The original recording had a fantastic sound. Was this before CDs arrived?

12

Oh, this would have been a good one for the eclipse playlists yesterday!

 primm wrote: 
I totally agree with you !

Cool song but sounds swishy, like it was a bad mp3 conversion. 

booooooooooooooooooring

10

 my favorite police tune! still stands up today

(Austin, TX)

---

Hannio wrote:

Mike wrote:  You've got the Gift...

 

The Trouble With Normal

 Fashionable fascism dominates the scene
When the ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means
Tenants get the dregs and the landlords get the cream
As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream
Brings us men in gas masks dancing while the shells burst
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Old pre-DSOTM Pink Floyd like. So very well done.

 kcar wrote: 
yup, Cheney's protege' Trump would keep his beady eyes on us all

(really dig this Police tune : ) 

 treatment_bound wrote: 
You are correct. It is, in fact, outstanding.

I usually liked what The Police did, but this, this is not good.

 reindeer wrote: 
Ditto

This is my favorite album of theirs.  It recalls a time and place for me and I love the songs on this disc.

I know I have said about only commenting about the song (rather than the personnel of the band for instance) but this time I have been transported to another place by the song title - Invisible Sun - what a great name for a Sci-Fi movie. Let's see... a group of people escape the dying Earth in a spacecraft hoping for a new home.  However even they know the odds are pretty hopeless because their spaceship would take hundreds of years to reach another habitable planet even if there was such a thing.  They survive in space as long as they can but just when all seems lost - what is that? An Invisible Sun... not visible with the naked eye but yet... yes the instruments are showing that a nearby planet is habitable and maybe, just maybe, they could start a new life on this distant planet after all...

Nurse - can I have my medication now.

ho hum Police. lost their spark at this point. from then on it was Sting's show

Perfect pop creation.

 dickmahoon wrote: 
Best drummer of the eighties!

Not my favourite Police album but I'm just so into Stewart Copeland's drumming that it doesn't matter....

Written in 1981 and now, 34 year later, here we are almost living in a Police state. 

I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an armalite

I don't want to spend the rest of my days
Keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say

I don't want to spend my time in hell
Looking at the walls of a prison cell

I don't ever want to play the part 
Of a statistic on a government chart

Classic timeless album. 

The Police did so much poppy stuff that the Ghost in the Machine album was so different - so much more mature and complex. Some of that was them, and some was the production. Great stuff.

 Boy_Wonder wrote: 

It's aged much better than I have! 

Not aged well........................... (unlike me!!)

One of their worst!

Long live my dad for listening this with wee me in the room back in the 90s

 Rick_V wrote: 
Yes it is.  I suppose it would be very dark if the sun were invisible.

 Ahnyer_Keester wrote: 
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sineäd
Hendrix
Police
Strummer
Siouxsie
Patty Griffin
What a F#@ Sequence!!!!!!

Perfect segue!

 

 Rick_V wrote: 
Perfect description.

This song made me do research before Google was around...

 ambrebalte wrote: 
Yes, thanks fred. Your posts on the UK in the 70s and 80s are quite interesting and informative. This last one filled in the blank gaps of my understanding of that era; as I reading it I immediately thought of the assassination of Lord Mountbatten ('79) and the IRA bombing of the Conservative party conference in Brighton ('84), although I had to look up both events for the dates. 
"Perhaps the times weren't dissimilar to that in the US and, to a lesser extent, the UK after the 9/11 atrocity, when dissenting voices were few and the Security State gained the upper hand which it's strengthened ever since. Whenever politicians say "if you're not with us you're against us", you know for sure that truth and democracy have well and truly been suspended for the duration, and that was certainly the case in the UK and NI during The Troubles." 

We heard a lot of "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"—which quickly got turned into thinking like "if you have nothing to hide, you won't mind the extra security measures and heightened surveillance powers." As far as I can tell, Americans were resigned at first to the news of government surveillance as revealed by Edward Snowden, but there's growing anger at the extent of it and the lack of restraint. It almost seems as if the NSA is hacking into customer databases of firms like Google and Facebook and spying on the heads of government because...well because it can! And it was a tough challenge to tap Angela Merkel's phone calls but hey we cracked that nut so you should be proud of our prowess! Now it's come out that the NSA has planted intercept devices on computer hardware—hell, it has an entire catalog of tools for the job. Apparently bugging computers hasn't yielded a lot of good intel, but the Fort Meade boys sure are earning their CompTIA A+ accreditations! 

At this point, I get the strong impression that the NSA doesn't know how to say "no" or "we won't go that far." That's the scariest thing: I've no doubt that the vast majority of people working on this kind of surveillance want to thwart terrorism and organized crime but there aren't enough leaders in government to impose limits on covert surveillance, organize reviews of past behavior or allow the public a full and fair say on surveillance undertaken in its name. The military-industrial complex may well morph into the military-covert surveillance complex, with the best of intentions.

Great dark tune.

 apd wrote: 

 fredriley wrote: 
Thank you fredriley

 ckcotton wrote: 
Sting had great hair in those days

 h8rhater wrote: 
No one forced Rod Stewart, Elton, Eric, etc. to put out pop crap during that decade. They went for easy money and stadium tours. I suspect that the 80s were the height of power for recording companies, which pushed lesser artists to put out formulaic FM hits. 

Some of the guys you mentioned had to reinvent themselves. Elton went out of style, got into drugs and IIRC stopped working with Bernie Taupin. Rod Stewart's gig as singer/songwriter and white man singing the blues ended during the 70s and he had get raunchy. I'd forgotten he'd come out with "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" back in '78-79. I just remember that for a lot of the 80s he'd become a punchline as had Elton.  No idea what drove Phil Collins and Genesis--how do you go from songs like "Carpet Crawlers" (thanks Bill for playing this on RP) to "Sussudio"?

As for Neil, I think he's always done what he wanted to do. No record company could have forced him to put out Re.Ac.Tor or Everybody's Rockin' as Neil and Shocking Pinks. (iTunes claims that he was flipping off Geffen Records with the latter album after the company tried "to direct the artistic content of Neil Young's career." The iTunes notes for Re.Ac.Tor are pretty funny btw). 

I think a fair number of these guys just had gotten too rich or bored or safe and let other people tell them what to produce.  Probably a lot of coke was involved--didn't Clapton get into that for a while? It's also hard to stay on top over the span of two decades or even stay relevant as musical tastes change. 

LOVE this album cover... cool how they got the images of the band in digital form.....

Indeed, very invisible, the Sun, lately -
Ages since I last listened to this song! Love it.

This playlist has been nothing but made of *awesome* :-)

Another reason to love RP! Who knew?

 hcaudill wrote: 

more to the point, they're portraits of the band: Andy; Sting (with the spiky hair); Stewart (long face).

 Dave_Mack wrote: 
I count myself amongst the ignorant on this too. Never looked at it that closely.
Thanks for that tidbit.

A heavy song from a heavy album. There're few light=hearted tunes on Ghost, but "Invisible Sun" is brilliant.

 scraig wrote: 
I'd forgotten that it was banned, but I'm not at all surprised. You really had to be in the UK when the Troubles were at their height to appreciate the highly febrile atmosphere of the time. The early 80s were a time of intense guerilla warfare in Northern Ireland/Six Counties/Ulster (delete according to political/sectarian taste) which also spilled over on to the mainland with the IRA and INLA carrying out bombing campaigns, and even assassinations of UK political figures. To the British State, and by extension the official media, the UK was at war with 'Republican terrorists', and any comment - written, spoken, sung - that deviated from the standard State line was considered to be aiding and abetting the enemy.

Although this song's lyrics about the experience of ordinary folk caught up in the Troubles may seem tame, apolitical and uncontentious by today's standards, at the time they'd have been seen as implicitly Republican because they didn't follow the standard State line. This is a period when the Thatcher regime famously decreed that the words of Republican spokespeople could not be heard on TV and radio so that they wouldn't be afforded "the oxygen of publicity", leading to the ludicrous and comical situation where actors were hired to dub the words of Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others on TV. The UK political police - MI5 and Special Branch - openly and covertly monitored and harassed groups such as Troops Out who campaigned, legally, for the withdrawal of the British army from NI. Left politicians in the UK, such as Ken Livingstone (then leader of the Greater London Council), were pilloried in the media and parliament for breaking the consensus on the 'Northern Ireland situation'. Innocent Irish people were framed for terrorist atrocities and imprisoned for decades.

Perhaps the times weren't dissimilar to that in the US and, to a lesser extent, the UK after the 9/11 atrocity, when dissenting voices were few and the Security State gained the upper hand which it's strengthened ever since. Whenever politicians say "if you're not with us you're against us", you know for sure that truth and democracy have well and truly been suspended for the duration, and that was certainly the case in the UK and NI during The Troubles. I wouldn't be surprised if I were told that Sting et al were investigated by the political police.

I heard last week playing a trivia game that this song was banned by the BBC because of it's content. Seriously. The Police were banned.

Haunting song about Northern Ireland and England. One of the understated hits from a band that seemed to touch gold on almost anything it did.

Flash back to high school.

FILLER

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
WT...   So DO I!   I'm a little less ignorant, now. Thank you!

Definitely not my favourite tune but it's still great to listen something from this great great band.

 hcaudill wrote: 
Me too.

 drsteevo wrote: 
This in the same post as "but hip hop sucks anyway, so who really cares".

 hcaudill wrote: 

O M F G!!!

I'm right there with you in ignorance. I'd always just assumed they were creepy, possessed LEDs — never looked closer than that. Guess you really do learn something new every day. And thanks for pointing it out!

This hasn't aged well at all. Filler from this album.

Just tossed on the vinyl of Novo Combo after hearing this.

 hencini wrote: 
would old sting be punching young sting or t'other way round? And who cares?

I've often wondered what would happen if 1978 Sting met 2008 Sting.  Would he punch himself in the face or shake his own hand?  How did the same man who wrote "Dead End Job" also release and album of lute music?  LUTE MUSIC!!!!  

:) 

Great song. So want 'Hungry For You' to kick in next.

Teen angst years before Nirvana. Good stuff.

 sronis wrote: 
You are so wrong.  Electronica started in the 70's (ever hear of Kraftwerk?).  Hip-hop started in the 80's (but hip hop sucks anyway, so who really cares).  I think you have to consider the late 70's through mid-80's (1977-1985) as the last great music era.  Since the mid 90's there just hasn't been the same quantity and quality of music as there was before that.  The early 90's showed a small surge, but nothing compared to the late 70's/early 80's or the second half of the 60's.  The variety, richness, and quality of music has generally been lacking since 1995 or so...

"80s music does suck, generally" - that is an idiotic statement

 Tippster wrote: 
first, some of these bands were formed in the 70s or even before that.
second, some did their finest work before or after the 80s.
third, that's all you can think of? 10 bands of the top off your head? for every other era i have many more than that...
and lastly - electronica was birthed in the 90s, and hip-hop got to its peak only then.

In conclusion - 80s music does suck, generally ;-)

I was staring at the album cover just now trying to figure out for the millionth time what those symbols are supposed to MEAN, when I finally saw that they're faces. Three decades slow on the uptake...

 lemmoth wrote: 
Nicely articulated. There were few good bands that came out of the 80's. Depeche Mode and The Smiths besides the previously mentioned are a few. The 80's was the Micheal Jackson sound, and everybody wanted to capitalize on it, Because the magnet draw to money and the latest sound the music suffered. Thank you to the groups that refused to compromise their sound for the dollar.   

 h8rhater wrote: 
You're High.  I love this masturbatory "The 80's SUCKED" BS but it is just that,  These are just off the top of my head:

Guitar Rock:
Van Halen
Rush
Metallica
Guns n'Roses

Alternative Rock (British New Wave:)
Clash
Smiths
Cure
Joy Division/New Order
Depeche Mode
Psychedelic Furs

So many more.  Maybe you had your head stuck in Led Zeppelin breaking up or Gabriel leaving Genesis, but There was some serious music that came out in the 80's.  Hell, it birthed/solidified two new genres - Hip Hop and Electronica.
 

Just so overplayed everywhere...

 lemmoth wrote: 
80's music had a style about it that seemed to permeate everything that came out.  Especially during the mid part of the decade.  That "style" seemed to water down the greater artists (great examples are Eric Clapton and one of Red Machine's favorites, Neil Young) and allow lesser lights and one-hit-wonders to shine.  Artists like Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Phil Collins COMPLETELY lost their way in that decade and haven't been relevant since. To his credit, Clapton bounced back with the Journeyman album in 89 by getting back to his roots.  Neil did it too in 89 with Freedom.

That being said, the aforementioned Police, U2, and REM are good examples of great bands that thrived in that time. 

 redmachine wrote: 

You are either too young or don't remember how awful the 80's were for music that received any widespread airplay. The Police and Elvis Costello put out some very good work at the beginning of the decade.  U2 and REM put out good work (IMHO) throughout.  Other than that all the best music - in the US anyway - was heard on college radio and other indie stations - that includes some of the good Brit bands of the decade.  Lots of artists who did good to great work and were popular in the 70s put out lesser works by most account in the 80s.

 MiracleDrug wrote: 
It's clearly neither.
They are not even close.

 peter_james_bond wrote:

Well said!

all through the late 80's I thought the best band in the world was either:

The Police

OR

U2

I still haven't figured this out...

I don't know why I didn't like these guys when they were new. Oh well, as my grandmother used to say, "Too soon oldt, too late schmart". But maybe it's not too late?

I see - song still ranking high.. High!

 Poacher wrote: 
Good point !  I'm checking out the ogg feed right now, and so far, outstanding use of technology by RP, as usual.  Good LP, too.

 horstman wrote: 
In these digital times, I would say uncompressed files are 'best'. Vinyl is so old school ;)

 rosedraws wrote: 

Uh, you DO know that you can now buy CD's right?  Just askin'.... 

 rosedraws wrote: 
Go to a used record store (sorry, used music store) and buy some CDS. Or go to Amazon or ebay and do same.

There is no excuse. And yes, vinyl is still better just not easily transportable.

my favorite song of a band that I don't think that much of

 Stingray wrote: 
And you still crack me up, Stingray!   I have this album on vinyl, and I love pretty much every song on it. (Note to self:  Get this on CD!)

One of my favorite Sting/Police songs

STILL THINK STING IS A GENIUS (despite his long-lasting composer's block),
but never liked POLICE (despite 2,3,4 songs/hits)

Then, recently, I saw their reunion-concert (Japan, I think) and was
EXTREMELY AMAZED how GREAT, how PERFECT (in a good way) they were!

ESPECIALLY ANDY SUMMERS (I seriously did not know
that he is such a great guitarist!)
All of them were terrific!
TRUELY AN AMAZING CONCERT,
THAT I WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND!

PS
This song is CRAPPY, of course!!!

For the 2nd time today I will say, I sure as hell wish my Police collection wasn't all vinyl!

 

 ronniegirl wrote: 
me neither...blech.

 FluorideFreeMN wrote: 
me either.  I can tolerate this song.

 iTuner wrote: 

I have not heard this since college, and I have to agree. I used to love this song, but it no longer has the same effect.

This song was AWESOME in seventh grade. 25 years on, not so much. Other Police songs I'd much rather hear.

 SantaFeGrace wrote: 

Took me a long time before I saw the portraits. I thought it was some sci-fi typography.